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HubSpot CRM vs Salesforce Essentials comparison

HubSpot and Salesforce are both solutions in the CRM category. HubSpot is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.4, while Salesforce is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0. HubSpot holds a 2.4% mindshare in CRM, compared to Salesforce’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of HubSpot users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.
HubSpot CRM
Read 48 HubSpot CRM reviews
  • 1,024 Views
  • 580 Comparison Views
98% willing to recommend
Salesforce Essentials
Read 14 Salesforce Essentials reviews
  • 170 Views
  • 68 Comparison Views
92% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

HubSpot CRM and Salesforce Essentials compete in the CRM category. HubSpot appears to have the upper hand for small businesses due to its affordability and ease of use, while Salesforce offers a broader feature set for businesses with complex needs.

Features: HubSpot CRM is known for its strong integration capabilities, particularly with email systems, and a suite of marketing tools that includes automated sales sequences and lead tracking. Salesforce Essentials is recognized for powerful AI capabilities, finance and order management, and its ability to handle complex business processes.

Room for Improvement: HubSpot CRM needs improvement in email capabilities, offers limited customization at lower licensing levels, and requires better duplicate removal processes. Salesforce Essentials would benefit from enhanced integration with systems like SAP, improvements in AI functionalities, and more flexible pricing packages for smaller teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both products are available through Public Cloud deployment. HubSpot is praised for its responsive technical support and community resources, while Salesforce's support experiences vary, with some users finding it less proactive.

Pricing and ROI: HubSpot CRM provides a free version and offers modular pricing, making it generally affordable for small businesses. Salesforce Essentials is considered expensive, with high licensing costs noted as a disadvantage. HubSpot presents a more budget-friendly option, though both report favorable ROI outcomes from their use.

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Buyer's Guide
HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce Essentials
June 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.7
HubSpot CRM boosts lead generation and revenue, with varying ROI and valued for efficiency, automation, and data security.
Sentiment score
7.9
Salesforce Essentials offers an efficient, user-friendly platform that accelerates sales, aids teams, and automates processes for quick returns.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Users commend HubSpot CRM's timely support, though improvements like live agents and self-help access are needed for some.
Sentiment score
8.0
Salesforce Essentials is praised for fast, efficient support and reliable service uptime, enhancing user satisfaction and operational stability.
There is always an account rep that's available, and there is a technical account rep that is available for every account.
Part of it is different language use, and while that's okay, it wasn't immediately evident where to find help, verify, or submit a question and get responses.
HubSpot's customer service is excellent and fast.
For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report
Their service and uptime is phenomenal.
Salesforce Essentials has excellent customer service.
For more quotes and insights, download the Salesforce Essentials report
Kartikeya Prahlad - PeerSpot reviewerCharles Dickens - PeerSpot reviewerMarianaPiñeres - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
GS
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
HubSpot CRM is scalable for all company sizes, but some prefer pairing it with Salesforce for enhanced capabilities.
Sentiment score
7.5
Salesforce Essentials is highly scalable, supporting enterprise-level needs with flexibility, although some report connectivity and enhancement dependency issues.
Handling around 100 to 150 users is fine.
There are a lot of enterprises using it, however, even as a GTM for HubSpot, their target market is predominantly SMB.
For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report
It is one of the most scalable systems available.
For more quotes and insights, download the Salesforce Essentials report
KA
Kartikeya Prahlad - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Users praise HubSpot CRM for its stability, reliability, and strong performance, despite occasional minor delays in operations.
Sentiment score
8.1
Salesforce Essentials offers stable performance, smooth SAP integration, minor bugs, and reliable uptime, ensuring minimal operational disruptions for users.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report
Salesforce Essentials has proven stable, with no downtime that affects my work.
For more quotes and insights, download the Salesforce Essentials report
 

Room For Improvement

HubSpot CRM needs improvements in customization, pricing, integration, UI, mobile app, support, automation, scalability, and subscription features.
Salesforce Essentials needs better integration, intuitive UI, competitive pricing, simplified automation, enhanced connectivity, and improved language support.
A package covering everything in a particular area without requiring the entire purchase would be excellent.
The response time is slow.
A better CRM can be achieved by providing more customization features.
For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report
Instead of requiring users to think about system navigation and clicking procedures, they can simply follow a workflow that guides them through the process.
There are other competitors, like Zoho CRM, that offer similar features at a lower cost.
For more quotes and insights, download the Salesforce Essentials report
Charles Dickens - PeerSpot reviewer
PN
KA
AA
GS
 

Setup Cost

HubSpot CRM offers mid-range pricing with modular options but is criticized for limited advanced features and perceived high cost.
Salesforce Essentials is costly, but offers value through flexibility and add-ons, despite complex payment options and operational expenses.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report
The cost of running Salesforce Essentials is significant.
The costs associated with Salesforce Essentials are substantial, which is a drawback compared to competitors who offer similar services for less.
For more quotes and insights, download the Salesforce Essentials report
 

Valuable Features

HubSpot CRM is valued for its user-friendly design, seamless integrations, automation, customizable workflows, scalable features, and real-time reporting.
Salesforce Essentials offers cloud deployment, customization, AI, and mobile support, benefiting process optimization and data integration despite high costs.
HubSpot stands out for its ease of use, especially with sequence creation compared to other CRM solutions.
All the automation features, where I can completely automate a cadence like emailing, lead scoring, and lead qualification, everything can be automated, including all workflows.
The features are superior, as few others can reach that level.
For more quotes and insights, download the HubSpot CRM report
It is very customizable to specific needs.
Salesforce Essentials is excellent because it is one of the most flexible CRMs available.
For more quotes and insights, download the Salesforce Essentials report
MarianaPiñeres - PeerSpot reviewerKartikeya Prahlad - PeerSpot reviewer
PN
AA
GS
 

Categories and Ranking

HubSpot CRM
Ranking in CRM
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Salesforce Essentials
Ranking in CRM
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of HubSpot CRM is 2.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Charles Dickens - PeerSpot reviewer
Effortlessly manage relationships with seamless contact data integration
The primary area to improve is creating deployable packages. When I buy into HubSpot, I have a list of checks, however, I am left to figure out how to use it. I start with a budget, and it's just a persistent sales demand. HubSpot should establish some pre-deployable packages that, when contracted, offer basic functionality. It is important to be clear about what it doesn't provide or what else is needed. I can outfit myself with my own tools or other options as I evaluate the board. They are building businesses for themselves. However, there's always a limiting function encountered. Understanding limitations upon entry would be beneficial so I don't constantly stumble upon unknown constraints. A package covering everything in a particular area without requiring the entire purchase would be excellent.
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Srini-Dhanaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
Manages service requests and dispatches engineers to resolve issues
I work from home for a heater manufacturing company. They wanted to move away from their current SAP CRM system to Salesforce. There is a fulfillment process, which involves taking an order, delivering it, and providing service. Salesforce is used to manage the order-taking process. Once an order is taken, the backend system, SAP ERP, handles product manufacturing, delivery, and installation. After installation, the Service Cloud in Salesforce takes over for ongoing service management. Once your order is confirmed, integration with the SAP ERP backend will be seamless. The system takes the sales order from Salesforce and starts processing it for procurement, starting with creating a production order, manufacturing, and then delivery. Once the product is delivered, this information is passed back to Salesforce Service Cloud. In the Service Cloud, a service engineer receives a notification indicating that a product needs to be delivered to a specific location for installation. The engineer then inspects and installs the product at the designated site. SAP ERP manages the product manufacturing and delivery processes. After the product is delivered to the customer, Salesforce Service Cloud takes over. It manages service requests and dispatches engineers to resolve issues reported by customers. Service Cloud captures the information and creates an incident record when a customer reports a product fault. Engineers receive this information and promptly visit the client site to fix the issue. The solution is easy to implement. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Read full review
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HubSpot CRM?
The best thing about HubSpot is its clear workflow. Anyone can understand the flows of your contacts, your emails, their delivery dates, and the reasons behind their movements.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HubSpot CRM?
The cost is about the same price, currently charged monthly.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for HubSpot CRM?
I use Segment, mainly Segment. We use CRM, usually HubSpot CRM. Some clients use HubSpot CRM and Zoho CRM. Different clients use different kinds of CRM, but we don't use them. We mostly focus on ma...
See all answers
What do you like most about Salesforce Essentials?
Salesforce provides the best they have with the current version. Most of the features we need are already there, and it's very easy to use.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Essentials?
Salesforce Essentials is very expensive, but it delivers exceptional value. It is a good platform to have if you can afford it because it has numerous add-ons and modules. Anything that Salesforce ...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Salesforce Essentials?
We use a limited number of automated workflows in Salesforce Essentials. The workflows we implement are designed to make sales teams' lives easier when executing certain tasks. Instead of requiring...
See all answers
 

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
HubSpot CRM
June 2025
HubSpot CRM reportDownload HubSpot CRM product report
Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Essentials
June 2025
Salesforce Essentials reportDownload Salesforce Essentials product report
 

Overview

HubSpot CRM is a comprehensive customer relationship management software that helps businesses manage their sales, marketing, and customer service activities. It offers a wide range of features, including contact management, email tracking, deal tracking, and task management. 

With its intuitive interface and easy-to-use tools, HubSpot CRM allows users to streamline their sales processes, track customer interactions, and improve overall productivity. It also integrates seamlessly with other HubSpot products, such as marketing automation and customer service, providing a complete solution for businesses of all sizes. 

Whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, HubSpot CRM can help you organize and grow your customer relationships.

HubSpot

Salesforce Essentials is a cloud-based CRM tool for businesses seeking flexible, scalable, and customizable solutions to enhance sales and customer support processes.

Designed for seamless integration across multiple channels, Salesforce Essentials includes Sales and Service Cloud to simplify sales tasks and customer management. It enhances finance, credit, and quality processes with user-friendly AI capabilities and predictive analytics. Despite its strengths, there is room for improvement in SAP integration, interface simplicity, and report generation. Cost-effectiveness and support for diverse languages are also potential upgrade areas. Businesses use this CRM solution for lead management, opportunity tracking, and automating sales workflows, transitioning from paper-based methods to digital efficiency.

What are the essential features of Salesforce Essentials?
  • Scalability and Flexibility: Accommodates growth and customization needs.
  • Multiple Channel Integration: Enhances finance and quality processes.
  • User-Friendly: Easy navigation with AI capabilities.
  • Cloud Deployment: Includes Sales and Service Cloud features.
  • Predictive Analytics: Improves productivity and tracking.
  • Mobile App Support: Facilitates on-the-go access and management.
What benefits or ROI can users expect from Salesforce Essentials?
  • Improved Productivity: Automation features save time and streamline tasks.
  • Enhanced Customer Management: Centralizes interaction and data handling.
  • Ease of Transition: From manual to automated workflows.
  • Performance Monitoring: Standardizes processes for better oversight.

In the retail industry, businesses employ Salesforce Essentials for customer data management and transparency in order processing. Healthcare providers use it for patient engagement and streamlined communication. Financial services utilize it for billing management and compliance, harnessing automation tools for efficient data handling.

Salesforce
 

Sample Customers

digimind, easyrecrue, software2, subaru, suzuki
Information Not Available
Buyer's Guide
HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce Essentials
June 2025
Free Report: HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce Essentials
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